Aircraft are robustly designed, and thus operate safely and reliably. Though highly unlikely, it is nonetheless postulated that an aircraft could experience one or more unexpected events during its service lifetime. These unlikely, yet postulated events may be generally categorized as non-normal events and off-nominal events. A non-normal event is one that may be triggered by a system failure, and typically has an associated recovery procedure to assist the flight crew in resolving the event. An off-nominal event is typically not as serious as a non-normal event, but can nonetheless disrupt normal aircraft operations. These events typically do not have an associated recovery procedure. Thus, in the case of a non-normal event, there is a known recovery procedure to resolve the event. However, in the case of an off-nominal event, there may not be a recovery procedure, requiring the flight crew to rely on knowledge, training, and experience to resolve the event.
No matter the specific category of an unexpected event, if one of these unlikely events occurs, any one or more of the normal procedures being implemented by the flight crew will be interrupted. Moreover, after the unexpected event is resolved, these interrupted tasks will likely be incomplete. Thus, in the aftermath of event resolution, in addition to having to restart interrupted tasks, the consequences of the actions taken to resolve the event need to be dealt with. Unfortunately, there are presently no procedures to implement in the aftermath of a successful unexpected event resolution.
Hence, there is a need for a system and method for assisting a flight crew in recovery in the aftermath of an unexpected event. The present invention addresses at least this need.